Back to being a puppy...

Good morning! I woke up at 6:30 AM to Tequila(reminder:who is our 10 month old German shepherd) eating everyone's shoes. I groggily took them all away and went back to bed. Woke up a few hours later to this lovely mess, charcoal bag ripped wide open, shredded mother-in-law's pillows, broom straw strewn about the patio and Tequila looking at me like what? I was bored you shouldn't have taken my shoes away...ahhhhhhhhhh puppies! I actually asked my husband whether he thought it was going to be easier to have our baby or to have a puppy? I thought a baby will be easier... but he disagreed ...

Then the anger from the destruction cleared when I realized she's not bleeding anymore!!!!!She's not in heat anymore finally!!!! Yeah!!!!!No more isolation techniques, no more mangy, crazy, male dogs lurking around, no more bored Tequila because we can take her for walks free off leash again, and let her run and play with the other "boys" in the neighborhood. After all, I need to remember she really is still just a puppy...

To let off some steam for the both of us we took a long walk around the neighborhood and it has definitely become our daily ritual. There has been tons of rain lately and the country side is bursting with greens and flowers. Although I don't find Didim a perfect city it does have a lot of natural beauty.


















These small purple flowers make me happy while we are walking on the beach. They pop out of the sand with these wispy, curly iris like leaves. I imagine they stay so small to protect themselves from the intense seaside wind we can get. The vibrant pops of purple nicely surprise the eye against the neutrals of the sand, and muted greens of surrounding low lying shrubs.


















The abundant yellow flowers are mustard greens(Hardal in Turkish). They seem to have a cooperative relationship with the olive groves. It is beautiful the subtle muted tones of the olive leaves rising above the lively yellow flower speckles all against the backdrop of the Aegean Sea.

As you drive down the road to our house the fields are blanketed with a beautiful emerald green and then the patchworks of olive groves dappled with the yellow. There are several edible greens, including mustard that people dig up and saute with onion and tomato paste. My husband's favorite is to fry eggs sunny side up into the vitamin packed greens(see earlier harvesting post)













Tequila and I's daily walking adventures go something like this, taking in the little things, the natural beauty of Didim with my friend, my puppy.